Happy Mother's Day!

Me, my Mom, and Nana at the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, FL probably in 1975.
From my private collection.

It's Mother's Day and I am one of the luckiest daughters in the world.

I come from a long line of incredible women. They are strong and independent women. Women who are resilient, compassionate, tender, strong, loving, and fighters. They are smart and capable. Actually, they are beyond capable. They are extraordinary. They see things the way they could be and work to make their vision a reality. They are achievers. They are talented and creative. They are pioneers.

Yesterday, I visited my Grandma Gardner in Glencoe. She passed away 13 years ago, so it was really more of a one-sided visit at her grave site with me doing all the talking and even a bit of crying. We didn't have the best relationship when she was alive, but I think she'd be proud of me and see quite a bit of her in me.

Today, I had the privilege of speaking with both my mom and Nana. Mom called me from the nursing home. She'd made a meatloaf (that Nana had requested last week) and taken a little to her to mash up and feed her for dinner, but Nana couldn't eat it today. Nana isn't doing well, having good days and then really bad ones. Today was a really bad one. She's got a cold, wasn't making any sense, and thought quite a few people who are very much alive had already died (including me). But I got to hear her voice and that made me happy beyond words.

My mom is an incredible woman. She's overcome so much in her life and always lived her life in service to others. Whether it was coordinating the National Guard to deliver food to shut-ins during the Blizzard of 1979, advocating on behalf of the disabled with the Illinois legislature in 2002 to get funding restored for programs for the mentally ill, or advocating on behalf of my grandmother with Verizon and other phone companies to make them provide operator-assisted calls for the blind for free in more recent years, my mom has fought the battles most people believed she had no chance in winning.

Yes, I am proud of all the Bear, Gardner, Paulk and Scruggs women who came before me.

Click here to watch a video about my mom being the 2009 Mom of the Year! Congratulations Mom!



Click here to watch Martina McBride sing "In My Daughter's Eyes" which I believe is the perfect song for Mother's Day, if you can't see the video above.

(Mom, I know you don't normally watch the videos that come with my blog posts because you see the posts via email and they don't come through. Please click the links and watch them. It's worth it. I promise.)